Another chance
by Anne-Lilian
Summary: Rose is stranded in the other universe, working for Torchwood. Everyone knows she's not happy there, but what if she was offered a second chance? T for now. ABANDONED
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**** This is my first Doctor Who fanfiction, so bear with me. This takes place after the Doctor's message on Bad Wolf Bay for Rose. I'm not sure whether I want to continue this or not, I like the story enough, but I suppose it depends on how much response you guys give me ^^ I don't apreciate flames, but constructive criticism is always welcome!**

**Warning: I know most of my little theories don't make much sense or are otherwise clearly impossible (as my sister has already pointed out), but bear in mind that this is fanfiction and not a canon-fic at that. It's a babyfic, so don't like, don't read! This hasn't been beta-ed so any mistakes are mine!**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

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><p>It had been five months since the doctor's message on Bad Wolf Bay. For a while, it had been very hard for Rose to move on, to do something with her life again. But working at Torchwood really had given her a purpose, she helped people, saved lives. Still… Life without the doctor… it was barely worth living.<p>

Mom and dad were living the good life in the mansion, impatiently awaiting their little girl.

Rose visited as often as she could, of course, but sometimes seeing them was just too much. She would never be able to have that anymore. As much as she might've tried dating again, and as much as she liked her new friends, she just couldn't. She loved the doctor, plain and simple.

Mickey and Jake had joined Torchwood and were on Rose's team, though the powers that be (aka the people in charge) had been a little reluctant at first. The rest of the team consisted of two guys; Glen and Derek, and one girl; Laura.

They were currently on an assignment to stop another alien apocalypse from happening, in London this time. It wasn't their usual 'kick alien arse fast and get out before something explodes' kind of thing, Rose was actually undercover. Some key-making company had drawn Torchwood's attention and they wanted Rose's team to figure it out.

She already knew the guy from personnel was a sleazy moron, but apparently he was in the thick of it, so Rose let him flirt with her, disgusting as it was. The whole thing was becoming a drag, really. She'd joined Torchwood because she wanted a little bit of adventure in her life. That and she wanted to help people, like the doctor had done.

Every morning she'd get up, shower, head to work, the idiot would hand her a cup of coffee, she'd work, lunch break, work, go home to her temporary apartment (courtesy of Torchwood), update her equally bored team and go to sleep. The only thing she'd figured out so far was that there was some sort of secret underground floor to the building, one that wasn't on the official maps, but she hadn't been able to steal the key to get in there.

That was her sole objective today, even if she'd have to get fired over it. Rose knew Lance had one (probably the only one), but she didn't know where. She'd already had Mickey and Jake break into his house to search it, but that had come up empty. Rose figured it had to be in his office, unfortunately, that was guarded for some reason. (_'I mean, really, he's from _personnel_ for God's sake!'_).

The plan was to sneak Mickey into the building and have him knock out the guards, so Rose could poke around the office.

She hadn't actually thought she'd find something, though, but there it was: a small key labelled 'lift'. The idiot had only kept it in a locked drawer that she'd had no trouble picking.

Quickly, Rose pressed it into some kind of foamy booklet that Glen'd given her, to get the imprint of the key. Glen would be able to manufacture a duplicate.

Glen was their resident thief; he'd taught Rose how to pickpocket and how to pick a lock. The ptb had been a little hesitant to make him part of the team, but Glen was smart and talented and he'd saved all their hides more than once before.

Nevertheless, Rose wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Putting the key back into the drawer, she dashed outside. Mickey immediately fell in step beside her. "You got it?" he whispered.

"We'll be able to see what's down there tonight," Rose replied, guiding him to the back entrance.

Pressing the foamy key-copier into his hand, she pushed him out the door. "Go! We meet at my place tonight. Bring the armoury!" she said, shutting the door.

Rose leaned against the glass for a second before squaring her shoulders and striding purposefully down the hall.

She was lost in thought as she rounded the corner, which caused her to walk into the person she least wanted to see. "Rose!" he said, sounding genuinely surprised as he steadied her.

"Lance? What are you doing here?" Rose asked, trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice. She was fairly sure Mickey and her had hid the unconscious bodies well enough, but Lance would wonder why they weren't at their posts. She couldn't let him find out, or the whole operation was in danger.

"On my way to my office, but I could ask you the same thing. I thought your break was over 5 minutes ago?" he asked, eyes slightly narrowed.

'_The doctor would've been much better at talking his way out of situations like these,'_ Rose thought a little bitterly.

Some womanly charm would be needed, she decided. "Actually, I was looking for you," she said huskily, stepping closer and resting her hands on his chest. Lance responded immediately: his face relaxed and his hand went to rest on her hip. Disgusting.

"Oh, really, and why might you be doing such a thing?"

Inwardly, Rose rolled her eyes. No one spoke like that. _'Think, think, think! I need an excuse, fast!'_ she thought frantically, though on the outside, she remained completely calm. That was a trick Laura had taught her when she'd first joined Torchwood.

Rose leaned in closer, whispering in his ear. "That's for me to know and for you to find out…" she stepped back and continued down the hall, swaying her hips a little more than was strictly necessary. Luckily, the work floor was pretty close, so it soon became too busy in the hall for him to try anything.

Rose felt sick. All she wanted to do was go home and shower and never come back to that place. With a bit of luck, she wouldn't have to after that night.

/*/

Rose had sat at her desk and pretended to work for the rest of the day, and then went home at 5, like all the other secretaries. The team had been waiting for her when she got home. They got any equipment they might need ready while Rose changed into something a little less conspicuous than the skirt and blouse she wore for work.

"Ready?" Laura asked when Mickey had parked the van in the shadows, close to the H.C. Clements building.

"Let's get this over with, I can't wait to quit my job," Rose joked half-heartedly, and got out of the car.

Getting into the building and the elevator proved to be easier than they had thought. As soon as Mickey had disabled the cameras and alarm system, Glen had no trouble getting the rest of them in.

"Okay guys, from now on you're on your own. But remember, I can still hear and see anything you can," Mickey said through the ear pieces. "Good hunting."

Once inside the elevator, Rose pulled her gun and checked the chamber. "We don't even know what's down there," Laura commented, eyeing the gun.

"Exactly."

Derek was the weapons specialist and he'd taught Rose how to use several firearms back at HQ. Usually, the teams didn't carry them, though since she'd asked for the armoury, the armoury was what she'd been given. As opposed to the general rule, Rose never went anywhere without her own gun.

Not since the doctor's message.

It had only occurred to her then that he wouldn't be there to protect her anymore. She had never fired it at a person, though, and she seriously doubted she ever would. She'd never even used it on an alien before. She let Jake or Derek have that pleasure, usually.

"So what's the plan? Recon and report back to HQ or shut the place down?" Jake asked casually, drawing his own weapon.

"Depends: if it's dangerous we blow it up, if it's not… well, we can still blow it up," Rose replied. Derek and Jake cracked a grin while Laura just rolled her eyes.

The doors tinged open and the group stepped into a dripping, dank, empty hallway.

"Which way?" Laura asked, peering into the semi-darkness on their left.

"Right, there's a door over there," Derek pointed. Glen opened it to reveal a tight crawlspace with bars that formed a ladder. Rose pointed a flashlight to the top, but she couldn't reach it.

"I'll go first, Derek, you're with me. Jake and Laura, wait down here," Rose instructed as she holstered my gun and started climbing. They'd learned a while ago not to question her.

Turned out they were below the Thames Barrier, and that this was probably an abandoned Torchwood facility. Those suspicions were confirmed as they entered a lab with all kinds of strange science-y things. "Take a sample of those fluids, I want to know what they are," Rose told Laura; she was the smart one after all.

"What's down there?" Derek pointed at the only other door in the room.

"Don't know, let's check it out," Rose replied, leading the way. Laura made up the back when she'd pocketed a sample.

The team entered huge room with an enormous hole in the ground. From Jake's pack, Rose took one of those light bars you had to crack and threw it in there. It went on forever.

Derek whistled. "Deep."

"Talk to me, people," Mickey said through the earpieces.

While Laura reported, Rose stared at the bottomless pit. The light wasn't even visible anymore. A chill crept down my back. "Something's down there," she whispered.

"What? Did you say something, Rose?" Jake asked, coming to stand by her shoulder. She turned to face him and the rest of the team. "Something's down there," she repeated louder.

Laura frowned and looked into the hole. "How could you possibly know that?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, I don't think it's awake…"

"You think it's an alien of some kind." It wasn't a question.

"Yes… Blow it up," Rose said, wanting to get rid of the strange feeling that made her skin crawl.

Derek stared. "You can't be serious. You want to blow this thing up because you have a gut feeling? We don't even know yet what's in that lab."

"You know what, I don't care what we do, I just want to get out of here. We're moving out. Mickey, did you get everything?" Rose asked, already heading for the exit.

"Yeah, I think so. Don't worry, Rose, we can always blow the damn thing later."

They went the rest of the way in silence. Rose knew my team was wary of speaking to her about what had just happened. She'd be too. Though she was the team leader, Rose had been known to give a strange order because of a feeling she'd had. She guessed she'd picked up that sixth sense from travelling with the doctor.

Luckily Mickey and Jake had always backed her up, but they couldn't hide the doubt they felt. She knew her team thought she was crazy sometimes, that they were a little fed up with her mood swings, but she couldn't help it.

She wasn't the cheerful Rose she was when she travelled with the doctor anymore. She was Rose Tyler, daughter of _the_ Pete Tyler, owner of Torchwood, she was the leader of my own Torchwood team and she was a mum.

About that: she hadn't _technically_ lied to the doctor at Bad Wolf Bay; she'd told him her mum was pregnant, and she really was. She just hadn't mentioned that Rose's own daughter was in the car with her dad.

Her little Cassiopeia, Cassie for short, had come into her life only two months before the doctor's message. She'd named her after a constellation, since the doctor had actually taken her to a planet _inside_ it.

She was Rose's everything, though she couldn't share her with the world. For one; Cassie had two hearts, like her father, and second; she grew faster than any human child ever could. Even now, at seven months old, she looked like a two-year-old. Sometimes it hurt Rose to look at her since she looked so much like the doctor: she'd look at her and see everything that she'd lost… but also everything that she'd gained.

She'd be lying in her bed at her grandma and granddad's right now, hopefully not having a nightmare. Unfortunately, she had those most nights, but Rose could always calm her down, and she was sure mum and dad would be able to as well. It wouldn't be the first time she'd left her with her parents.

As the team stepped into the elevator, Rose pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, she had better things to do than dwell in the past right now.

Once again, they were on the ground floor and were making their way to the front of the building. Hopefully she'd be home soon, so she could see Cassie again.

"Guys, someone's entering through the main doors! Go 'round back! Quickly!" Mickey had warned them in the nick of time. They were close to the main work area, which was the last thing to cross to get to the main entrance.

The group stopped dead in their tracks. Rose signalled the team to keep quiet and stay where they were as she peered around the corner cautiously. Of course, it had to be Lance. Rose swore silently as she saw he was headed to the security office to the left of the hall.

She back away from the corner and ran as quietly as she could toward the back entrance, her team following her. "Mickey," she whispered, "how are those cameras?"

"Still deactivated, why?"

"I need you to activate them, now!" Rose ordered, ignoring his question. "Show him the feed from an hour ago, before we were here, can you do that?"

"I can try, how much time do I have?"

"Less than three minutes," she warned as she dashed through the back entrance.

"This is never going to work," Rose heard Derek mumble. She ignored him and got into the van.

"Let's move, I don't want to be here when he figures out we've seen the lab."

/*/

"She's in the kitchen with Pete, Rose. But I do wonder if she should be eating so many bananas?" mum was saying as she let Rose in.

"That's okay, she gets it from her dad," Rose said, ignoring the stab to her heart. "Cassie, sweetheart?" she called, entering the much-too-large-for-only-two-people kitchen.

"Mommy!" a high voice shouted when a blur of yellow and pink collided with her. Rose staggered back a few paces, but held on to her daughter for dear life. She hadn't seen her little star all week.

"Did you have fun with granddad and grandma?" Rose asked, settling the little whirlwind on her hip. Dad grinned at her in greeting and followed his wife into the living room so Rose could have some private time with her daughter.

The girl nodded vigorously. "Granddad and I made you a cake!" she said excitedly.

Rose frowned. "How did you know I was coming? _I_ didn't even know I'd be coming till last night."

Cassie shrugged. "I don't know. A voice in my head tells me," she explained. She sounded much too smart for someone who looked like she was two years old.

"Really? And what else does this voice tell you?" Rose asked as she sat down at the kitchen table, taking in the mess that Cassie and dad had made to bake that cake.

"That you miss daddy and that you think I grow so fast because you had the yellow thingies from the blue box in you," she said matter-of-factly, putting her small index finger on Rose's temple.

Rose gaped. My seven month old was referring to the time vortex she had never told her about. Damn her Time Lord abilities.

"Cassie, I need you to listen to me very carefully. You can never mention that to anyone, understand? Not even to grandma or granddad. Can you do that for mummy?" Rose asked, looking her directly in the eyes.

Cassie nodded and buried her head in her mother's hair. Rose sighed and combed her fingers through Cassie's light brown locks until the phone rang.

"Yeah?" she said tiredly as she picked it up.

"Rose!" Laura sounded frantic. "You have to come to Torchwood NOW! That liquid we saw? Those were huon particles, the same strange particles I found in your bloodwork last month. If those things activate-"

The scientist never got to finish her sentence as Rose and Cassie disappeared, holding onto each other tightly and leaving the phone to shatter on the kitchen floor.

/*/

When Rose opened her eyes, her breath stuck in her throat. All the familiar lights and colours surrounded her again. Rose was standing in the TARDIS, she was home.

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><p><strong>AN:**** So what do you think? Should I continue this or not? Review!**

**-Anne**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth, and yes, obviously I _have_ decided to continue this (though how I'll manage, I have no idea). Little bit of warning, I probably not update every month, since I'm just not good at holding to deadlines...  
>This hasn't been beta-ed, so any mistakes are entirely my own, and so far, it doesn't really have a plot, so it might feel a little... odd.<br>Anywhoo, I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my entirely-too-cute-for-her-own-good friend, Lynn, because I only recently found out she's as big a Doctor Who fan as I am. And we both really love Rose.**

**Enjoy!  
><strong>

Chapter 2

Rose closed her eyes and allowed all the emotions she had pushed aside for a year wash over her. It had been a little over eleven months since she last stood in this spot, waiting for the Doctor- the Doctor! Rose's eyes flew open and searched the console room. Her heart leapt when she saw an elbow sticking out at the other side of the console.

Taking a deep breath, Rose set Cassie down on the floor and took a step to her right, so she could fully see the doctor. He was leaning on the console, staring at the edge with bespectacled eyes. He wore a blue suit and red converse, the serious expression on his face one she'd seen often while travelling with the Time Lord.

"Hello Doctor," she breathed, hoping the emotion wasn't too obvious in her tone.

For a second she wasn't sure he'd heard her, but then he looked up and faced her fully.

"Rose?"

**Doctor POV**

Martha was gone and now he was alone again. He hadn't quite expected her to come back and kiss him, but he wasn't surprised. He'd known she had… feelings for him. On one hand he was sad she was gone, but on the other he was also relieved. He knew she felt second best, and to be honest, in that aspect she was; no one could replace Rose. And she was in love with him while he didn't feel the same. Martha was only ever a companion to him, a trusted friend, no more, but definitely not less.

The Doctor froze as he felt a change in the air. Nothing alarming in itself, seeing as this happened quite often in the TARDIS, but he felt a… presence? Like that feeling you get when someone else was in the room, and looking at you. But that was impossible, the TARDIS was set on 'drift' and Martha was back with her family.

"Hello Doctor," a familiar voice said. He'd never forget that voice. The last time he'd heard it, she was shouting out his name in terror, falling towards the void before she was intercepted by Pete Tyler and taken from him forever. No, the last time he'd heard that voice, she told him she loved him, and he'd been too bloody slow to admit the same. It was the voice of the woman he loved. It was Rose Tyler's voice.

Slowly, the Doctor looked up, because he couldn't have heard right, his ears must've been playing tricks on him. But there she was, looking tired and wearing all-black clothing, like she'd been up all night. Even her blonde hair was hidden under a black cap.

"Rose?" he heard himself whispering.

A huge smile broke out on her face and she ran forward. The Doctor straightened up and held out his arms for her. And then she was in his arms, burying her face in his shoulder.

It wasn't until he saw a drop in Rose's hair that he realized he was crying as much as she was.

"I've missed you. So much," she whispered. The Doctor tightened his arms around her, to convey the words he couldn't find. _I know, I missed you too._

Rose pulled back, but before he could complain about the lack of contact, her lips were on hers, desperate and passionate, and the best bloody kiss he'd ever had.

They were interrupted by a whimper, coming from the other side of the console. Rose's eyes grew wide and fearful as she pulled away from him. She ran towards the noise. "Cassie? Cassie, what's wrong?" the Doctor heard her ask.

Slowly, he edged around the console until he could see Rose, cradling a little girl of maybe one or two years old. She had straight blonde hair, like her Rose, but had a sharper face.

"It hurts, mommy," the little girl whimpered. "The voices are yelling at me."

Rose held the girl tighter and rocked her. She looked at the Doctor. "Can you do anything?"

"What's wrong with her?" he asked, positioning himself in front of the girl.

"It's her head, she has… gifts…" Rose tried to explain, but couldn't seem to find the words.

The girl sobbed again and tried to bury herself closer into her mother's neck. The Doctor was still wrapping his head around that: Rose was a _mother_?

"She's telepathic?" he asked, trying to get the girl to look at him.

Rose nodded. "Slightly, yes. Psychic also: she often has nightmares and sometimes knows things are about to happen." There seemed to be something Rose wasn't telling him, but the Doctor ignored it so he could concentrate on the girl.

"Look at me, come on, you can do it," he urged the little girl. She looked up at him with wide, brown eyes, bloodshot from crying. Those eyes were familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on where he'd seen them before. But no matter, first he had to find out what was wrong with her.

"Does she get headaches like this often?" he asked Rose, who'd been watching him closely. Meanwhile he used his sonic screwdriver to check the girl.

"Sometimes, usually when she's had a nightmare, it's never been this bad though. Can you help her?"

"You never took her to a doctor?" he asked confusedly.

"I only ever let Laura, my team's scientist and doctor, look at her. She said there's nothing physically wrong with her," Rose explained, still looking at him intently.

The Doctor frowned. His screwdriver showed him the same. But then what was it?

"You're probably thinking why I never took her to a normal doctor or a specialist," Rose said.

Well, not really, but now that she'd mentioned it, it was a little strange, especially since she now brought it up. The Doctor looked at Rose for the answer.

"I didn't know how I'd explain her having two hearts," she whispered, keeping her eyes on

her child.

Two hearts…

Two _hearts_…

_Two_ hearts…

The Doctor's mind went blank for what seemed like an eternity. The only way this child could have _two_ hearts was if it was the child… of a Time Lord. The Doctor's own two hearts raced. This could mean one of two things. One: there were Time Lords in Rose's dimension and she's met one of them, which was very unlikely, or two: the child was his.

"Doctor?" Rose's soft voice interrupted his thoughts. She was looking at him now, worry shining in her eyes.

"Rose, who's her father?"

Rose sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Could you look at her first? I'll tell you everything you want to know in a moment."

The Doctor nodded and turned his attention back to the little girl –_ his_ little girl – and put his hands on her temples. Now that he knew she was half Time Lord, he knew exactly what to do.

"I've bound her gifts for now," he said while the little girl's eyes drooped and she lay down on her mother's shoulders. "A normal Time Lord child would be able to control it instinctively, but since she's half-human…" The Doctor focussed on Rose's face now. "She's mine, isn't she?" he whispered.

Rose nodded and picked her sleeping daughter up. As she walked towards the TARDIS's sleeping wing, she explained.

"Remember that planet in Cassiopeia? We went to the market and had dinner, and then there was that festival. I'd already had a few too many drinks and there was this man who bet he could get you drunk. Of course you said you never got drunk, no matter how much you drank," Rose said with a smile on her face as she entered her old room. It had stayed exactly the same, except that it now also contained a crib. All pinks and purples and clothes strewn around…

"And then you got drunk, and I got even more drunk… I don't remember anything else 'till the next morning: I woke up naked in your bed in the TARDIS. I wasn't sure how you'd react, so I snuck out before you woke up. Since you didn't seem to remember it anymore, I didn't mention it. I only found out I was pregnant about a week after I'd arrived in the other universe."

The Doctor was frowning. He remembered the planet and the waking up naked, by himself, so he'd assumed nothing had happened. He studied Rose's face. She'd told him she loved him, and certainly seemed to love her daughter. She also didn't look angry or sad that she'd become a mother so young.

But what was he supposed to do? He remembered being a father, he remembered how to take care of children, but the hurt of their deaths was still painfully fresh in his mind. Looking at the little girl, he couldn't help seeing their deaths again.

"What was her name?" he asked Rose in a whisper, not taking his eyes off the sleeping child.

"Cassie, short for Cassiopeia," she replied equally softly.

The Doctor looked up and quirked an eyebrow. "Like the vain queen who proclaimed herself and her daughter to be more beautiful than the gods and nearly got said daughter killed?"

The corner of Rose's lips twitched as she suppressed a grin. "No, like the constellation, you prat."

"Which, incidentally, was named after said queen." The Doctor grinned like he hadn't in a while. Rose rolled her eyes at the Time Lord. The Doctor grinned some more. No matter in what circumstances she had come here, his Rose was back. He pulled her into another hug and rested his head on top of hers. "I'm glad you're back," he whispered.

The room was quiet for a few seconds before Rose replied. "I missed you," she choked out. The Doctor pulled back a little to see she was crying, before pulling her back in and holding her tighter. "I missed you too, Rose. And I'm not letting you go again."

Cassie stirred in her sleep and her cute, scrunched up face seemed to say 'get a room! I'm trying to sleep, here!'

The Doctor chuckled lightly and led Rose to the TARDIS kitchen where they'd sat many a morning, laughing over some stupid joke or other. Once inside, Rose immediately went over to once of the cupboards and rummaged around in it until she found the yellow box usually containing the cocoa powder. The blonde shook it and narrowed her eyes at the lack of sound.

"Where'd all the cocoa go?" she asked with an adorable pout.

The Doctor realized guiltily that Martha had drunk it all.

Rose's eyes narrowed. "So tell me, what's her name?" she asked sweetly.

"What? I… What?" the Doctor stammered. He could honestly say it took a _lot_ to shut him up and even more to render him speechless. He should have known Rose would be able to do it with little more than three words.

Then Rose grinned and then she laughed. "You should have seen your face! I know you don't travel alone Doctor, you always need companions. I learnt that lesson from Sarah Jane. So tell me, who was she and where is she now?" she asked slightly more serious.

So the Doctor told her all about Martha. During his stories, she came to sit on the chair next to him and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"You still haven't told me how you got here," he noticed.

"I'm not quite sure myself. I'd just gotten home from a mission and I was hugging Cassie when Laura called to tell me she'd found strange particles in my blood. I think she called them huan?"

"Huon particles?" The Doctor couldn't believe his ears, out of all the people in all of Rose's universe, she was the one who got huon particles in her blood. But something still didn't add up.

"Yes, that's it! But what are they, Doctor?"

"It's what's in the Tardis, but there aren't supposed to be anymore of those …" he trailed off. Then he remembered Donna Noble.

"Someone else came to the Tardis with huon particles, but they're supposed to latch onto the closest source of huons, so why did they send you to me?" He was speaking more to himself than to Rose, but she answered anyway.

"There's no Tardis in the other universe, my best guess is that it sent me to the closest universe that did, and since the barrier between these two universes was so fragile this one was the closest," she said calmly.

The Doctor looked at her closely. "That's brilliant, when did you get so brilliant?"

Rose smacked him, but was smiling all the same. "I'll have you know I've always been this brilliant, you just never noticed. And I learnt a lot at Torchwood."

The Doctor huffed at the name, though Rose could probably see that he was having as much fun as she was. And that started a round of jabs and jokes with about Torchwood, time travelling, the Doctor's previous regeneration and bananas versus pears.

**A/N: Tell me what you think and REVIEW!  
>'cuz reviews are like rainbows and cookies and puppies; they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside ^^<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hi y'all! No, I didn't die, and I'm so sorry for not updating! NaNoWriMo and my Merlin fanfic interfered (and plain laziness, but we're not dscussing that ^^). Almost 2,000 words for you to love or hate, so review and tell me what you think.  
>Also; should I bring in Donna now, or wait a little longer? And how would she react to little Cassie?<br>**

**Rose POV**

"So tell me about your family, how are they?" the Doctor asked quietly.

The pair has wandered back toward Rose's bedroom to check on Cassie when their laughter had quieted down. Rose had been amazed at how much younger her daughter looked now that her gifts were blocked. Cassie now looked like she was a year and a half at most. The Doctor had gently pulled Rose toward the big bed where they now lay comfortably.

"Mum had her baby; it's a boy called Tony. Dad's ecstatic about it, and tries to be home as much as he can. Have I told you he's head of Torchwood UK?" Rose asked, lifting her head to look at the Doctor.

He grinned at her. "Really?"

Rose nodded. "He loves every second of it. And mum's proud of him, which makes him even happier. Yep, one big happy family…" Rose trailed off. She knew she'd been a mess her first two months there, and even after that, she distanced herself as much as she could from them, working all the time… She'd hurt them, but they'd understood, and had stood by her. In some strange way, that had only made it worse.

"So what about Mickey the idiot?" the Doctor asked with a grin. Like always, he'd read her like a book, and knew she didn't want to talk about it.

Rose smiled. "He's doing well for himself. He was the second in command of my team… First now, I suppose, since I'm here. And he got himself a boyfriend," she said with a huge smile.

The Doctor's eyes widened, and Rose could tell he was working hard not to start laughing. "A boyfriend? Really? Who?"

"I don't know if you remember Jake…?"

The Doctor couldn't hold it in anymore, he doubled up.

"Stop it, you'll wake Cassie!" Rose admonished him, though, she was grinning as well. He quieted down some. "Jake and Mickey, ha! I should've seen that coming."

Rose lay back down and stared at the star pattern on the ceiling. "Mickey was so uncomfortable with it all the time, which frustrated Jake, but they're working on it. When I left they were still keeping it a secret, which, of course, meant that everyone knew about it," she explained.

The Doctor hummed, done laughing for now.

Rose wanted to talk to him about _them_, about the kiss they'd shared, but he'd been skirting around the issue all night, whether consciously or not, she couldn't tell.

Just as she opened my mouth to bring it up, he got up and stretched. "You're probably tired, I should let you sleep. Goodnight," he said, and walked to the door.

"Doctor," Rose called, making him pause and turn back around.

She got up and walked up to him. He looked calm, but she knew him; she hadn't travelled with him for nearly two years not to know him. For a nearly thousand year old alien, he had amazingly expressive eyes in this incarnation, and she could read the sheer terror in his eyes. He was afraid of what she might say, of what judgement she might cast on him, and he couldn't deal with it right now. "Goodnight, Doctor," she said, giving him the escape he needed.

/*/

The Doctor was at the console, pushing buttons, pulling levers and turning knobs, trying to figure out what had happened.

Time Lords and humans couldn't procreate. It was a fact, one that had even been investigated quite a few times back when there were still Time Lords around.

Ignoring the slight stab at the reminder of the unfortunate fate of his race, he stared at the words on the screen. What it said couldn't be true. He had pulled a hair from both Rose and Cassie's shirts and had put it into the computer to analyze. The TARDIS analyzed Cassie as half human and Time Lord, which was what he had expected, even though it was impossible. But according to the computer, Rose's DNA wasn't entirely human.

'Half human, half unidentified species', it said. But that was impossible as well, because the TARDIS's database contained every species and sub-species that ever existed. The Doctor leaned back in the jump seat and ran a hand through his hair. Somehow, something or some_one_ had changed Rose's very DNA. It shouldn't be possible, but then again, Rose had never been one to keep to traditional expectations. The thought pulled a small smile from him.

Rose, _his_ Rose, was back. Normally, he wasn't one to believe in superstition or greater beings, but this time he felt like the universe was giving them another chance.

Well, sort of. Something was a bit… off. Not that there was anything wrong with Rose. Or Cassie for that matter. This made the Doctor frown again. He had a daughter, a child, again, and he wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that. More often than not, he'd found himself thinking of the little girl as 'Rose's daughter', not his own. To be honest, it scared him to death, so to speak.

He barely finished the thought when a small tug on his trousers drew his attention. Said little girl was now standing next to him, one little hand hanging on to the hem of his pants.

"I'm thirsty," she said in a surprisingly childlike voice. When he had heard her earlier she had sounded so much older.

The Doctor felt a little uncomfortable being alone with the child – _his_ child. "Where's your mother?" he asked, making no attempt of moving.

"She's sleeping, she had another nightmare, but I took it away," the girl, Cassie, said calmly. Her brown eyes – brown eyes that were now clearly his – staring solemnly into his own. No child should ever have that look in her eyes.

But the Doctor had picked up on something else besides her strange expression. "So where did the nightmare go?" he asked, having a suspicion. While normally not a question posed by most people, he Doctor wasn't most people.

Cassie looked down at her bare feet, clearly ashamed. She put an index finger to her temple in answer to his question.

The Doctor lowered himself to the floor until he was level with the girl and forced her to look in his eyes. "Does your mum know you've been doing this?"

The girl shook her head.

"And why haven't you told her?" he asked patiently, already knowing the answer but needing her to understand.

"'Cause she'd be angry."

He shook his head. "No, she wouldn't be angry, she'd be worried. You're too young for that kind of pressure, and you shouldn't have tried it in the first place. What if you'd gotten stuck in her nightmare instead of taking it away?" he reasoned, trying to teach this girl – his _daughter_ – what the implications of her actions were.

"But you weren't there to take them away, and I don't want mummy to be sad. She cries a lot, especially when she doesn't think I can hear her." Cassie's eyes watered. "And I tried to make her better, but it wouldn't work. Nothing worked." By the end of her tale, she was crying softly, letting only the occasional sob get through. That took a lot of practise, and no child had any right to have so much practise crying.

The Doctor sighed and picked the girl up. "It's okay, I'm here now, and I can take her nightmares away. You have to promise me never to try it again until I say you're ready, okay?"

She nodded.

"Good. Now how about a cup of hot chocolate?" he asked, already carrying her to the kitchen.

Somewhere deep within him an instinct had reawakened. He might still feel uncomfortable, and he might not know what his feelings toward the little girl – or Rose for that matter – were, but that didn't mean he couldn't make her a cup of cocoa when she was hurting.

/*/

Rose awoke with a start, having the distinct feeling something was missing. It took her a moment to remember that she was inside the TARDIS. Then it registered with her that the thing that was missing was the sound of her daughter's breathing. She hadn't slept in a separate room from Cassie, let alone a separate bed, since she was born.

Rose shot out of bed and raced out the door. Once in the corridor, she stopped, having absolutely no clue where to look first. Thankfully, the TARDIS seemed to still like her, and rearranged itself so there was only one way to go. Rose ran, and found herself in the hallway leading to the kitchen when she heard sounds; the scraping of a chair, the clink of cutlery against china… She slowed to a walk and went inside.

The Doctor was standing at the stove, a mug in hand and a distant expression on his face. And there, in one of the chairs at the table, sat Cassiopeia, stirring calmly in her own mug of hot cocoa. She was absently adding small pieces of marshmallows to her drink, and only looked up after a minute or so. "I didn't mean to wake you," she said in her high, girly voice. The way she spoke so contradicted her youthful face and voice that Rose was almost ready to cry again.

It was unfair that her daughter had had to grow up so soon, unfair to both of them.

"That's alright, sweetheart, I was just worried, is all," I replied, and sat down on one of the other chairs. The Doctor was staring at me now, a curious expression on his face; I briefly nodded, as if to say _We'll talk later._ When Cassie had finished her hot chocolate, I put her back to bed and, remarkably, she didn't protest.

As I shut her door, I looked back at the Doctor. "We need to talk," I said softly.

A look of resignation crossed the Doctor's face as he led me to the console room. "I knew this

was coming…" he sighed, running a hand through his hair, leaving it looking wonderfully dishevelled.

"Of course you knew. You're the Doctor."

He grinned at me from where he sat in the jump seat next to the console. "True."

Even though he was smiling, I could tell he still didn't want to talk about it, and it frustrated me. This is what the Doctor always did; he goes through life expecting nothing actually needs to be said just because _he_ thinks he already knows what you're about to say. Not that I was bitter or anything… Okay, so maybe I was a little bitter, but I had just spent the better part of a year in a different universe, with a _lot_ of time to think about both his good and bad sides.

And of course, Mickey _really _liked talking about the Doctor's bad sides.

So, the only logical course of action was to snog him senseless, right?

I stepped closer – the grin vanished in the face of my determination – took hold of his head and crushed my lips to his.

**A/N:**** Tell me what you think!**

**QUIZQUESTION: I'm going to start quizzing the whovians out there, and though I know it's not much, you can ask me any question about any of my fanfics if you get it right. Today's question:  
>Who are also known as 'The Lonely Assassins'? (this comes from one of my favorite epsodes ^^<br>**

**Good luck!  
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